3.26.2009

NEXT WEEKEND: Trail Work Day in THE SHED!

You love it. You ride it. But you've never had a chance like this before. How about cutting 1 mile of new legal singletrack in the Frederick Watershed? MORE and PATC have been working with the City of Frederick to get permission build a big chunk of new trail to replace an old road bed that passes it self off as a trail. The current trail is an eroded scar that is 8 - 10 feet wide in places and filled with water bars and check dams. The new trail will be singletrack that contains a mix of rock gardens, bench cut trail, loamy soil and will go through hardwoods and mountain laurel.

We want to get at least 40 workers out on Sunday April 5th to put a major dent in this project. That's a lot of people but this is a major opportunity to show the City what we are capable of building. Building a mile of trail is tough work, doing it at the Watershed is even tougher, that's why we need a big turnout to get things moving quickly.

If you want to work but can't make it on Sunday a smaller crew will be going out on Saturday April 4th to do some corridor clearing and get the site prepped for Sunday's army of volunteers. We welcome help on either or both days. Please RSVP so we know how many people to expect each day and can plan accordingly.

Why is this such a big deal? Until now, authorized trail work in the Watershed has been confined to doing band-aid style fixes on the poorly laid out blue trail, fixes that should be large reroutes due to poor trail alignment. This is the first time the City has given the OK to build a major chunk of new trail. We have a cycling advocate on the City staff that is very much behind this project and has helped push this through, setting a good example with this pilot project will lead to more opportunities in the future. This project will take place between Sand Flats and Fishing Creek Road. You can see a map of the reroute here.

We are working on a food and beer supply for the workers. Stay tuned.

Also, if you work at a bike shop or some other business that would like to donate cash or swag to help us feed our workers or reward them for their hard work please contact me at joewhitehair AT yahoo DOT com. We will make sure everyone knows your business helped us with this project. Thanks!

What to bring:Gloves, water, snacks, sturdy shoes. If you've got tools, we might need extras so we could use: shovels, picks, loppers, McCleods, rakes (mark you tools so you can identify them).

Date and Time:April 4th and 5th, 9:00 AM - arrive a bit early if you can so we can do our start our safety talk at 9am, then we'll be car pooling to the work site since there is limited parking where we will be working.

Location:Sand Flats gravel parking lot. Gambrill Park Rd, approximately 3 miles north of Hamburg Rd. Directions from the I-70/270 junction can be found here.

Question? Just ask! Thanks!

RSVP for the Sunday work day here. If you want to come out Saturday, email any one of the addresses above.

About Me

if you want to know about me all you need to do is check out my BLOG
it is not the same everyday or everyweek
the focus changes and alters with my moods and with the events of the day and the events of my life